After much delay and anticipation, the government's white paper on open public services reform has finally been published.

In a speech to launch the white paper on Monday, David Cameron reiterated a 'big society' approach to hand more power to local communities and called for an end to "Whitehall knows best".

Strengthening the government's localism agenda, the white paper includes proposals to give people more say in planning applications. It also provide for parish councils to take over the running of services, a legal public "right to choose" and personal budgets for users to buy services from any provider.

Cameron said the reforms marked an end to top-down government.

Although the government has been burnt over accusations of "back-door privatisation" of public services and some proposals, such as plans for legislation to open public services to outside providers, have been watered down, Cameron denied pulling back on radical reform. He said: "I know there are those who thought we might be pulling back or losing heart for the task ahead. So let me assure you of this: we are as committed to modernising our public services as we have ever been. I'm not going to make the mistakes of my predecessors - blocking reform, wasting opportunities and wasting time. "This is a job that urgently needs to be done, and we are determined to see it through."

The white paper sets out five objectives:

• Choice - Increasing choice giving people direct control over services they use and enshrining a "right to choose" into law. An ombudsman will take on a new role as enforcer of choice in public services. Consumer advocate organisation Which? to now cover the public sector.

• Decentralisation - Power over services to be held more locally with parish councils to run some services. Councils to receive new funding streams and community budgets to be introduced in 50 more local authorities.

• Diversity - Opening public services to new providers in voluntary, public and private sectors. Instead of having to justify competition, Cameron said, the new default will be to justify a monopoly on service provision.

• Fairness - Measures include a new people premium to be introduced to help disadvantaged children into the best schools and community organisers to work in the worst areas.

A roundup of reaction to the white paper

Tom Gash, programme director at the Institute for Government

There's not much that is new in this white paper but it is still a radical agenda. Other governments have tried and failed to remodel public services but this time the stakes are higher. With significant cuts in public spending, if these measures don't work, the state will not necessarily be in a position to shore up services. A white paper by itself doesn't change anything. Failure to take these next steps in any of the policy areas covered by the paper will lead to the risk of future u-turns, uncertainty and failure ... In order to avoid repeating the experience of the beleaguered NHS reforms, the coalition will need to invest a good deal of time and resources.

The IfG said: "Mechanisms for accountability in service delivery must be thought through. In future there are likely to be different mechanisms for different services and it will be important that all of these to make sense. In removing top-down targets and giving greater autonomy to frontline professionals, the government must still be clear on the minimum service standards. Ministers will have to be willing to relinquish power, while also remaining clear about who is responsible.

Jonathan Carr-West, director, Local Government Information Unit

The key to delivering the choice and local control the prime minister wants is to break the budgetary stranglehold of the big Whitehall departments – a point made clearly in the Communities and Local Government structural reform plan but yet to be delivered on.

At present CLG is the only government department actively pushing community budgets. This needs to become standard practice across Whitehall and the resulting pooled budgets used to support the open services approach. Without this there is a real danger that a more diverse public service supply side will be fragmentary and ineffective.

The prime minister talked about new forms of accountability through the exercise of consumer choice, but this must operate alongside, not in competition with, the exercise of local democracy.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, the largest public sector union

For all its talk of mutuals and charities, the White paper is nothing but a smokescreen for privatisation and will do nothing to improve quality. We will be looking carefully at the fine print and holding the coalition to account for any illegitimate attempts to hand over services to private companies, whose primary concern is the bottom line rather than service users.

John Cridland, CBI director general

Our public services are in urgent need of reform and the private sector is keen to get on with the job of helping transform them so the public can receive better quality services. Citizens should be able to choose from any willing and qualified provider and, like the government, we believe the best provider should deliver every time.

This white paper sets out more than just principles, outlining specific areas which could be opened up. This includes local planning departments, courts and helping excluded children. The government now needs to be even bolder in turning these ideas into reality on the ground.

While it is right to recognise the benefits mutuals and smaller providers can offer, the principle of any willing provider also means that larger firms should be able to bring their expertise to bear. We think the government could have made this much clearer.